The Tradition of Natilra Jones
by Radella Hardwick
Summary: At World's End with even MORE of a twist. Rike becomes the hero of the main plot-line, while Natilra goes off on her own, original story. Remember: Don't read this unless you have read the two previous installments.
1. Here We Go Again

**Here We Go Again**

**Disclaimer: Neither of us own any of the Pirates of the Caribbean characters, places or objects.**

**A/N: You'll be glad to hear, my muse is back! Though it is being kinda smothered by studying, it's still there, so I should get several chapters out before my next block.  
Thanks to Lucy (moonchild94) for becoming my beta.  
Now on with the tradition...**

As they rowed, subduedly, upriver towards Tia Dalma's shack, they passed between a sea of people holding candles in honour of Captain Jack Sparrow, all of whom were humming softly and standing in the water at the river's edges.  
Natilra was subdued for her own reasons; she knew that Jack would be safe, not that she could remember how she knew this, but she was missing her husband.

Rike put his arm around his sister. _This is so weird_, he thought to himself as she leant in to him. She had always been the strong one. She was the one who had taken them to sea when their parents died; she was the one who had built a ship and brought a crew together; she was the one everyone feared and yet... Here she was leaning on him.

Alex gave a little moan and recalled his mother to reality. She smiled down at the bundle and readjusted his position. Just then they arrived at Tia Dalma's landing stage. Ragetti got out of their boat, while Marty scrambled out of the other, then the pair each tied off the mooring line they were responsible for.

Natilra, as now the only captain, stepped out first and preceded the others up into Tia's hut. She pushed the door open and swayed across to Tia, who she then embraced. The voodoo mistress led her over to her own chair and handed her a stake-like, clear amethyst pendant on a silver chain.

"For the child's protection." Natilra nodded and slipped the chain around her neck. The rest of the crew settled in various positions and postures around the shack. After a few minutes, Turner started throwing his father's knife into Tia's table and then plucked it out and threw it in again. He repeated this over and over again. Just as Natilra was going to bark something none too pleasant at him, Tia created a nice distraction by winding her way between them with a tray. She offered it first to Elizabeth.

"Against the cold, and the sorrow." The voodoo priestess then made her way over to Will, who then ceased playing with his knife. "It's a shame. I know you're thinking that with the _Pearl_, you could have captured the Devil and set free your father's soul." She placed a cup beside him.

"It doesn't matter now. The _Pearl_ is gone, along with its captain."

"Aye, and already the world seems a bit less bright. He fooled us all right till the end, but I guess that honest streak finally won out," said Gibbs, coming in from the balcony where he had been smoking a pipe to his old friend.

"Yes, how like Jack to hide his virtue from us and display his worse tendencies," said Natilra, giving Elizabeth a wry look. She had seen _all_ that had transpired before Jack 'elected to stay behind'.

"To Jack Sparrow!" said the old bosun, raising his beaker.

"Never another like Captain Jack!" declared Ragetti in a choked voice.

"He was a gentleman of fortune, he was," added a near-distraught Pintel.

"He was the best trickster to ever sail," intoned Rike, trying to sound as sombre as the others.

"He was a good man," said Elizabeth in too clear a voice**; **it was evident to the other two women that she was about to start weeping. Everyone took a drink and then Will turned to his beloved.

"If there was anything could be done to bring him back...Elizabeth..."

"Would you do it?" asked Tia, anxiously interposing. Natilra's head snapped up to inspect the priestess. "What would you... What would any of you be willing to do, hm? Would you sail to the ends of the Earth and beyond to fetch back witty Jack and him precious Pearl?" Despite her now sounding seductive, Natilra realised that this woman had something to tell them that she feared they would find unpleasant and was trying to soften the blow.

"Aye," declared Gibbs, Pintel, Ragetti and Cotton's Parrot one after another. Elizabeth agreed in a choked voice, causing Tia's scrutiny to fall upon the brother and sister.

"Yes," said Rike with a firm nod. Tia Dalma then moved to Natilra, she knelt down before her and looked into the girl's eyes. After a moment, Natilra closed her eyes and the elder woman nodded.

"All right! But if you're going to brave the weird and haunted shores at World's End, then you will need a captain who knows those waters." The pirate empress was glad of her old enemy's melodramatics as it gave her time to think, then she heard a step on the stair and looked up to see... Barbossa with the indelible monkey on his shoulder. She smiled and stood up to greet him.

"So tell me, what's become of my ship?" asked Jack's old first mate with a wide grin and then bit into his apple, juice disgustingly running down his beard.

_N&R_

Once Tia had delivered all her explanations, they all settled to discuss a plan. Gibbs suggested his catch-all of scraping the gutters of Tortuga for a crew and the Whelp started formulating ideas for commandeering a ship.

"No!" broke in Barbossa, slamming down his cup with a crunch. "We'll go to Singapore! If we're goin' o'er the edge, we'll need ta get the navie-gash-inal charts from the Buddhist temple."

"You can't seriously be suggesting we approach _Sao Feng_!" exclaimed Gibbs. "What do you think, cap'n?" he asked Natilra. She opened her mouth to respond, then paused, but luckily for her Tia interceded.

"Dinner is ser–"

"It's OK, Tia. I will have to tell them eventually," said Natilra, calmly and calmingly.

"Tell us what?" asked Elizabeth shocked, speaking for the first time since Hector's appearance. Natilra was about to answer, but this time it was her brother who cut her off.

"She's not coming with us."

"What?!" was the cry from the throats of most of the group.

"I have to go after James," she explained, sounding slightly apologetic but firmly. "I must. You have to see that I must follow my husband." There were some nods.

"Dinner _is_ ready," interposed Tia and brought some trays over which held bowls of stew and strips of bread. They all tucked in and there was strained, genial conversation as they tried to reconcile their old differences.

**A/N: Just to give you fair warning: if you read this story for the canon plot, which I don't see why you would – you can watch the films for that, then give up on this one now, because the official plot is likely to only get about half of the air-time for a while.**

**For those of you who do like Natilra's sub-plot, as Lucy calls it, then I hope you enjoy watching her going off on her own adventure and that it gives you a better idea of who she really is.**


	2. The Little Things

**The Little Things**

**A/N: Thanks once again to Lucy for her betaing and thanks to all of you for continuing to read my drivel, it must be hard work. ;-)**

**I hope you all enjoy this first chapter of pure AU and sub-plot.**

The next day, they all rowed back towards the sea. There was an uncomfortable silence reigning among the party; what with Elizabeth's guilt, Will's suspicion and the pirates' resentment at Natilra leaving them and Jack in preference of the former commodore.  
After an hour of steady rowing on the parts of Cotton, Marty, Will, Pintel, Gibbs and Ragetti in shifts, they reached the nearest port and, while the mute and one-eyed pirates were tying up, the others jumped up and over the side and landed on the stone quay. Tia gave Natilra a stern look when the young woman did this also, but the younger just grinned.

"If he's to be my son, he better get used to jumping on and off ships and taking risks in general." There was a laugh in her voice that caused the others to glower at her, which in turn caused her to snap. "What is it with you?! You're going to get Jack back, fine I'm not going with you, but then again can you really see me and your designated captain rubbing along together well? No! So stop treating me as if I'm deserting you! I have a life to lead and it's not entirely to be devoted to piracy. I _am_ a woman, like other women are, and I wanted the pleasures of domesticity as much as I do those of adventure." The men all hung their heads ashamedly, all save Rike who was smiling at her and trying to suppress his laughter. Tia still looked unimpressed.

"You should not risk de baby."

"I'm not risking him!" she spat, frustrated.

"Come here, darling." Natilra turned to the old bosun and submitted, somewhat tearfully, to his embrace. He stroked her hair soothingly and glared at Tia and his fellow shipmates. "Don't ye worry, you're doing fine."

"Really?" she asked, painfully hopefully, raising a tear-streaked face to him.

"Yes, my dear. Your a wonderful mother and a better wife, I never did meet." She smiled and laid her head back down on his breast.

"Shall we?" Hector came and offered his godmother his arm. Natilra smiled at the man she had once pledged to help raise, she had failed him and Joshamee, but she would not make the same mistake with her son; she would never leave him. She took Hector's arm and the group all strolled along the quayside.  
"Remind me; where is it that you are bound?"

"As you full well know, I had not yet said. I think, Port Royal would probably be best. Even if he isn't there, I can get a ship from there to anywhere I need to." Hector nodded at her pragmatism.

_N&R_

They went first to the harbour-master's office and then to a tavern, before they rolled out in high spirits to find the ships he had recommended to them.  
The first one they came upon was a Portuguese trader that was going to stop at Port Royal.

"What are you carrying?" asked Barbossa negligently, as though he were merely interested and not as though he were considering whether to entrust a dear friend to the ship and its crew.

"Oh, tobacco, tinder, black cargo; the usual." Barbossa merely nodded and they wandered on. Neither he nor Natilra would ever pay to help slave-traders; it was one of the few things Hector and Jack agreed on was their abhorrence of the slave-trade. They moved on to the next ship on their list.

"Where are ye headin'?" asked Gibbs of the ship's captain.

"Singapore," rasped the wizened, Indian man, who could be no more than three and forty.

"What are you carrying?" asked Hector, stepping up with the lady to join the bosun in his questioning.

"All usual things: sugar; tobacco; plantain..." and he continued, reeling off every spice and herb individually. Gibbs and Hector, though bored, silently agreed that this was the passage for them.  
After they had made all the necessary arrangements, Natilra, Hector, Rike, Gibbs and Tia sauntered on along the quayside towards their next stop.

"Oi, gorgeous! Where you headed?" called a scrawny, lanky, salt-encrusted sailor who was sat atop a private boathouse. It took Natilra a moment to realise he meant her, after all she was the one on a gentleman's arm. "Hey, beautiful!" he shouted, leaping down from the roof and coming towards her. She sighed and rolled her eyes at Hector, who shared her smirk.

"I'm sorry, I'm not in a charitable frame," she told the sailor, snobbishly. The youth stood there, trying to work out what she meant, as the group carried on its way.

"Hey! Wait up!" He ran up and caught her around the waist, pulling her away from Hector. Suddenly, four blades were pointed at him, one of which was in his stomach.

"Get. Away. From. Me... _now_," she hissed at him and twisted her dagger. He leapt away from her as though burned, nearly impaling himself on Gibbs' sword, then ducked between Tia and Rike and ran off. They grouped back up, silently but smiling, and wandered on.

_N&R_

Later that day, having found a berth for Natilra aboard _The Skye_, they were well and truly entrenched in an inner-town pub and were competing with the band as to whose singing was louder and had more supporters.  
Natilra had been laughing neigh on constantly and Rike was thoroughly enjoying himself too. Then, just as the band had given up doing their own songs and were beginning to accompany the chorus, the crew of the _Black Pearl_ started up an old shanty that made Natilra blush.

"Oh, she rode high and she rode low;  
On the blue-crested white, white waves!" sang Gibbs. There was a chorus of cheers and she nodded and held up a hand in acknowledgement.

"She flew through the sea;  
And she flew through the air;  
Over hill and over dale!" continued Hector. Then the chorus sang:

"Rum tiddily um de dum!"

"Long she tossed on the raging seas;  
But now she's come home to me!" sang Pintel in a surprisingly pleasant baritone.

"Oh, what would I not for my lady fair;  
Now that she's home ashore!" roared the chorus loudly. They then broke into loud applause and cheers, which redoubled when Natilra was lifted up, by Cotton and Pintel, onto the table.  
She had hated the song when Edward had first written it; she had always shunned the limelight. However, she had learned to enjoy the feeling that she got when she walked into a tavern and heard the hymn of praise that had been composed for her being sung by people she had never met.  
And this evening... it was the first time she had revelled in the praise from being a renowned pirate captain.

**A/N: Hoped you enjoyed the tavern scene and Natilra's insecurities.**

**Yes, this was a bit of a filler, so you just have to wait for the next one for some action.**


End file.
